Former Hot Spring County Sheriff Scott Finkbeiner was sentenced to 24 months in prison by a federal judge on Wednesday for a drug and sex scandal that ultimately led to his resignation.
Finkbeiner, 47, was also given a three-year supervised release sentence by U.S. District Judge Susan O. Hickey. Finkbeiner will receive credit for time served because he is already detained.
The maximum punishment for Republican Finkbeiner would have been five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both, along with supervised release.
In February, Finkbeiner entered a guilty plea to deceiving the FBI in the drug and sex case. He left the position he had been in since 2023 shortly after. Finkbeiner acknowledged lying to the FBI about his connection to a federal investigation target. According to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Arkansas, Finkbeiner also acknowledged that he used crack cocaine and methamphetamine with the target and that he was at the target’s home when an FBI informant made a controlled drug transaction.
According to the prosecution, Finkbeiner admitted lying about his and the Hot Spring County Sheriff Department’s relationship with the target after learning of the FBI’s investigation in an attempt to urge the FBI to stop it.
After Finkbeiner entered a guilty plea to two state misdemeanors—inappropriate use of a state criminal database and soliciting sex—a state circuit court sentenced him to six months in a county jail in July.
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